This application is a continuation of PCT/IT94/00007, filed Feb. 1, 1994.
The invention relates to a process for forming foodstuffs in sacks, in particular mortadella, also known as Bologna or baloney.
Mortadella is usually formed by extrusion of the basic mixture, comprising porkmeat, fats and various spices, into a sack constituted either by animal gut or lining or a synthetic substitute, which is attached to the extruder by an operator. The sack is normally closed at one end, and once it has been filled and detached from the extruder it is closed at its free inlet end.
When cut, the slices of mortadella are usually circular in shape and exhibit a substantially uniform colour, with the lighter-coloured fats mixed in with no particular pattern.
Though the whole mortadella has the producer's name written on the outside, no single slice advertises its origin and no identification system exists which can offer the consumer a clear guarantee of origin of such a small quantity.
DE 8518910 teaches a device for the production of pasteries having two coaxial filling tubes, one inserted in the other, with one of the tubes projecting from the other. These devices produce pastries with internal designs of various types, thanks to the different mixtures that exit from either tube. The process envisages that the tubes fill rigid molds with the tubes staying at a fixed height while the mold progressively descends so that it can be filled, the vertical movement being provided by a hydraulic jack.
DE 3716237 teaches a filling head for a device for the production of pastries, constituted by portions having different fillings. The portions are made using filling tubes with different conformations and transversal sections, which filling tubes perform a contemporaneous extrusion of all of the fillings.
The above-described devices and methods can be applied to other kinds of foodstuffs, such as for example meats, providing the molds to be filled are rigid.
In the case of mortadella, the above-described systems do not enable well-defined designs to be made at the centre of the mortadella (and therefore at the centre of the single slice of mortadella), since the sack used is elastic and the mixture making up the mortadella is not homogeneous as in the case of pastries, and also since the filling processes envisaged in the above methods envisages that both the filling tubes be fixed and the molds vertically mobile during the filling phase.
DE-A-2304799 discloses a process for the formation of foodstuffs in a sack of the type comprising the annular extrusion of a principal mixture by a first extruder made around a second extruder already present in the sack.
An extrusion of an identifying mixture is made through the second extruder.
During the extrusion the sack is supported within a rigid container in such a way as the final product has a well definite and regular shape with rectilinear walls.
Such a process has the same drawbacks al ready cited hereinbefore.
A further embodiment disclosed by the same document shows a sack filled by two concentric and fixed extruders like those of prior art already discussed hereinbefore.
A principal aim of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and provide a process for the formation of meat in sacks in which the final product is such that the single slices exhibits a well-defined identifying design.